Kain's Mausoleum
Kain's Mausoleum is the crypt where Kain was buried after his human death in the Blood Omen era, and the place he awoke as a vampire shortly afterward. Situated within the Cemetery in southwestern Nosgoth, it appears as a playable location in Blood Omen and Legacy of Kain: Defiance. Role When Kain was murdered by brigands in the opening chapters of Blood Omen and was resurrected as a Vampire by Mortanius, Kain awoke in his family mausoleum four days later. The mausoleum served as something of the first 'dungeon' area and was where Kain found many of his most frequently used items, including the Iron Sword, Iron Armor and the Sanctuary Spell. He also gained his first Blood Vial, Rune triangles and the Heart of Darkness relic. This was also where he found his first 'Save altar'. Through the use of the Sanctuary Spell, Kain could often return to his mausoleum, gaining a small health boost when he did - it was also well-equipped with human sacrifices, and relative safety (though there were many low level enemies, like grave robbers and skeletons.). When he left the Mausoleum he found himself in the Cemetery and recognized his first vampiric vulnerabitilies - to sunlight and rain. After passing through The Cemetery and several other Mausoleums, he able to begin his journey back to Ziegsturhl . Kain's Mausoleum returned in Legacy of Kain: Defiance, where Raziel emerged from Elder's Lair into the Cemetery. Raziel initially passed through the structure without incident and - after gaining the Dark Reaver from a nearby chamber - he was able to bypass a pair of Guardian gargoyles and discover that he had entered Kain's Mausoleum, apparently shortly after the younger Kain's exit. Raziel investigated Kain's crypt and recovered Kain's Family Crest, using it to escape the tomb and ultimately reach a high vista that enabled him to breach the teleporter to the Light Forge. Design, Layout and Comparisons Kain's Mausoleum undergoes some radical changes between its Blood Omen and Defiance incarnations and with both seen in the Blood Omen era the changes are almost certainly due to artistic interpretation. At a basic level the color scheme, environment and layout has changed between titles. With the area seen in Blood Omen featuring a much more angular, darker feel than the more rounded and traditional cemetery feel of Defiance. The map of the Blood Omen area is treated as a single map tile and features ten distinct rooms, with the Defiance area treating them as four different sub-areas of the main Cemetery level, with a number of inter-connecting corridors that could comprise of upto seven rooms. Although though some could be considered to represent the same rooms, each is radically different from its predecessor. *The main 'Entrance' chamber linking to the rest of the Cemetery is a set of three straight corridors in an upside down 'U' shape in Blood Omen with the eastern corridor notably wider than its fellows. In Defiance this is replaced with a large circular room with a broken tomb and corpse host in the center which has three entrances (a door and two barred windows) in the north, which leads to a small corridor heading west, where two Guardian gargoyles protect the doorway leading further into the mausoleum. *In Blood Omen the chambers following this consist of a large square pillared room with a spike pit in the center with a purple magic sphere, a room alongside containing a save altar and a rectangular room to the south which itself has two auxillary chambers to east and west, each populated with Chained humans and a power up (a Blood vial and a Rune triangle respectively. In Defiance these are replaced by a longer corridor leading to a barred doorway which opens onto a larger double height room with two large 'towers' which alter in the Spectral Realm. To the south a double sided ramp leads up to the crest sealed door which leads through another set of winding corridors to the upper vista above the Light forge megalith circle in the main Cemetery. To the north a high opening - accessible by jumping across the 'towers' - leads directly through to Kain's tomb. A doorway in the east also leads through to Kain's tomb through some auxillary rooms. The Mausoleum in Defiance is filled with small nods to the original Blood Omen; Kain's grave appears in similar fashion to its appearance in Blood Omen, with the lid opened from the inside; The Painting of human Kain grows small fangs in the Spectral Realm and is decorated with Furthark runes which translate as "Here Lies Kain". Further down the corridor, there is also a grate which appears to have been broken, presumably by the younger Kain's escape, and a large bust of the Human Kain. BO1-Kain's Mausoleum Entrance.PNG|The entrance to Kain's Mausoleum in Blood Omen BO1-Kain's Mausoleum Tomb.png|Kain's tomb in Blood Omen Defiance-Cemetery-Kain'sMausoleumEntrance.png|The entrance to Kain's Mausoleum in Defiance Defiance-Cemetery-KainMausoleumEntrance.png Defiance-Cemetery-KainMausoleum-MainChamberA.png Defiance-Cemetery-KainMausoleum-MainChamberA-Spectral.png Defiance-Cemetery-KainMausoleum-MainChamberB.png Defiance-Cemetery-KainMausoleum-MainChamberB-Spectral.png Defiance-Cemetery-KainMausoleum-KainTomb.png Defiance-Cemetery-KainMausoleum-KainTomb-Spectral.png Kains' crypt.jpg|Kain's tomb in Defiance Defiance-Cemetery-KainMausoleum-KainBustRoom.png BO1-Map0006-Sect11-KainMausoleum.png|The interior of Kain's Mausoleum in Blood Omen Defiance-Prima-Map-Cemetery-Kain'sMausoleumEntrance.jpg|Kain's Mausoleum entrance interior in Defiance Defiance-Prima-Map-Cemetery-Kain'sMausoleum.jpg|Kain's Mausoleum interior in Defiance Notes *The interior of Kain's Mausoleum is given its own heading in Blood Omen files, where it is listed as a single area designated as "Map 0006 Sect 11" - the exterior area, along with the rest of the Cemetery, is listed along with other overland locations in the "Map 0001" heading and is given the designation "Map 0001 Sect 70". The Developers' level select gives the area the code "Maus", although the unmarked passage next to "Out" also led to Kain's tomb. In Defiance the areas are listed under the Cemetery headings as follows: "Cemetery 16A" - the area outside the entrance to the mausoleum, "Cemetery 4A" - the circular 'entrance' chamber with the Guardian gargoyles and following corridor, "Cemetery 10A" - the large main chamber of the mausoleum, "Cemetery 9A" - Kain's tomb and the following circular bust room, with the corridors after the Kain's Family Crest door bundled with the Light forge vista as "Cemetery 6A". Prima's Official Strategy Guide - Legacy of Kain: Defiance gives the rooms more conventional labels, calling the external area "To Kain's Mausoleum", the circular gargoyle chamber "Kain's Mausoleum Entrance" and the rest of the main area "Kain's Mausoleum". *Kain's human family crest bears a remarkable similarity to his later clan symbol and it may be that symbol was based on it. Remarkably the outline of the clan symbol is also present in the Ancient Vampire Murals of the Scion of Balance found in the Spirit Forge, though this coincidence is less likely to have been directly planned. Defiance-Texture-Cemetery-KainHuman.png|The Human portrait in Material... Defiance-Texture-Cemetery-KainVampire.png|...'Vampire' portrait in Spectral... Defiance-Texture-Cemetery-HereLiesKain.png|...and placeholder evolved Kain hidden behind *The portrait of Kain above his tomb was designed by artist Kory Heinzen and is seen prominently in Defiance concept art of Kain's Mausoleum. Both the concept art and the final textures used in the game display Kory's signature. **The portrait is backed by a border which is decorated with Blood Omen style Blood script runes. These are in the slightly modified alphabet used in Soul Reaver 2 and Defiance which is based on phonemes rather than letters. Roughly translated, the runes read "here lies Kain". **The portrait is inspired by a similar real-world portrait of British colonial officer Frank Swettenham by the artist John Singer Sargent, with minor modifications. Three versions of the picture were ultimately used - The original showing the human Kain was seen in the Material Realm. The Spectral version notably grew fangs and showed Kain as a vampire, while the third was a background placeholder showing a partially evolved vampire Kain and containing the blood script border. **The portrait is also ultimately featured in several games in the Tomb Raider series, with the portrait hanging below the stairs in Lara Croft's Manor in the (Crystal Dynamics developed) games Tomb Raider Legend, Tomb Raider Anniversary and Tomb Raider Underworld. Gallery BO1-Kain's Mausoleum Entrance.PNG|Kain's Mausoleum Entrance (BO1) Defiance-Cemetery-Kain'sMausoleumEntrance.png|Kain's Mausoleum entrance (Defiance) Bust of Kain.jpg|Bust of kain Kains family crest.jpg|Kain human crest Kain mural.jpg|Kain human mural Def-Kain'sMausoleum-Bust.png Textures Defiance-Texture-Cemetery-KainVampire.png Defiance-Texture-Cemetery-Mausoleum-Orb.png Defiance-Texture-Cemetery-RestInPeace.png Defiance-Texture-Cemetery-HereLiesKain.png Defiance-Texture-Cemetery-KainFamilyCrest.png Defiance-Texture-Cemetery-KainFamilyCrestLock.png Defiance-Texture-Cemetery-KainHuman.png References Category:Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain Category:Blood Omen indoor locations Category:Blood Omen locations Category:Legacy of Kain: Defiance Category:Locations Category:Defiance locations